Back To School Means Time for You

So, it's only a week left before the kids go back to school and suddenly you realise they've had a growing spurt and that new uniform you bought them doesn't fit or their shoes are now too tight. Or you're wondering what on earth are you going to do with all that free time you're going to have.
However you feel about the kids going back to school, it's actually a time when you can think about yourself for a change - even if it's just for 10 mintues!
Yes, I really do mean 10 minutes. And realistically we can all find 10 minutes for ourselves - even if its when we are sat on the loo!
In 10 minutes you can embark upon the wonders that meditation can bring to your daily life.  You can do a Guided Meditation or a Mindfulness Meditation, whichever suits you best, but they both take practice and discipline to master, so don't give up.
Of course you take the Dr David Hamilton approach and stand in a power stance for 3 minutes every day, like a superhero with hands on hips and chest out.  He swears by it because by standing in that way you're brain thinks you are powerful and strong and will start to produce those wonderful chemicals such as serotonin which make us happy and brave and able to cope with whatever the world throws at us.

Press Release - Helping to reduce the “Autumn Blues”

Solution Focused Hypnotherapy: Helping to reduce the “Autumn Blues”

As we start to get ready to go back to work towards the end of the holiday season, and the children are getting their uniforms sorted out, then people’s perceptions of stress may start to increase.
With the start of autumn just a few weeks away, and with the prospect of the nights beginning to draw in, this time of the year can prove itself to be a little daunting.
A possible change in the weather from sunny summery days into a more autumnal outlook can, for some people, also prove to be a little unsettling.
Solution Focused Hypnotherapy can really help people who may find they need help to manage the change of seasons combined with the return to work.
Julie Showering, a fully insured and qualified Solution Focused Hypnotherapy practitioner, based in Chipping Sodbury, says, “September can be a tough time for some people as they start to try to settle back into a routine of deadlines and meetings.
“Solution Focused Hypnotherapy can really help to reduce stress and promote a calm and relaxed approach to work and life as a whole.”
Solution Focused Hypnotherapy is a safe and effective treatment which uses science and psychology to utilise the mind into its most positive state.
Sessions last for an hour and a client may see their practitioner over a number of appointments to gain the most from the therapy itself.
“It really is amazing”, says Julie. “We see people whose ‘stress buckets’ might be overflowing when they initially come to us, and it’s wonderful to see the transformation over a number of appointments as they become noticeably more relaxed in their approach to life.”
Julie gained the Hypnotherapy Practitioner’s Diploma (HPD) in 2012 and is a member of the Association for Solution Focused Hypnotherapy (AfSFH), which sets out to ensure its members adhere to its high standards and code of conduct.
Solution Focused Hypnotherapy can also be used to help improve confidence, aid in sleep, ease anger and anxiety-based issues, help with weight management, and also in focusing someone’s mind on stopping smoking in a single session.

I ♥ Me

If you haven't come across Dr David Hamilton and his many books, I strongly recommend that you get his new book I♥Me.
I have to admit that I'd never heard of him until a few weeks ago when a colleague said she was reading this book. Then literally 2 days later I received an email with an invite to go and see him talk, so I did.
It was all a bit of rush that day.  My original meeting that evening had been cancelled and I was feeling a little annoyed as I usually go to aerobics which I'd had to cancel. So I decided to be spontaneous and found myself booking to see David Hamilton in Cheltenham.  I suddenly realised that it would take me an hour to get there and if I was going to make it I'd have to have an early tea.  So I rustled up something quick in the kitchen and literally walked out the door and hubby was coming home!
I drove up to Cheltenham and as I pulled into a nearby car park so did another lady and I just knew she was going to the same event as me - so I asked her.  Yes, she said, which was great as I had no idea where the venue actually was!  So not only did I get see an amazingly talented man tell us his story up on stage, I made a new friend too.  If you ever get the chance to go and see him, go, he is a real inspiration.

I've now signed up for his regular newsletter and this week he wrote this which I thought was really interesting
"In June, I was part of an experiment where a group of people 'sent' loving-kindness to a person who was in a different room, and that person's heart rhythms changed at the precise moment the loving-kindness was sent."
Isn't that just amazing? I've always known about the power of healing and distant healing whether it's spiritual or reiki, but to have it proven in an experiment just really confirms that there is so much more going on that we can really know or even understand.
And, more importantly, if sending positive thoughts to someone can have such a positive effect on that person, then we must assume that sending negativity can have the opposite effect and could actually cause them harm.
So be really careful with you thoughts and as soon as any negative one start to creep in, stop them immediately and start thinking of something much more positive!

Rocky Road to Happiness

I see a lot of clients suffering from anxiety, depression and panic attacks.  I like to explain that anxiety is where you worry about everything and depression is where you worry about nothing.  Lots of people think they are suffering from depression when actually they're suffering from anxiety.
But whichever you're suffering from the treatment is always the same; at the end of the day, when you're getting into bed, just think about 3 things that have been good about the day.  It could be something someone said, or something they did, something in nature that caught your attention, a smile or laughter, it doesn't matter whether it's big or small, but just try and pick out 3 or more things that have been good that day.  This puts you into the positive part of your brain so when you drift off to sleep, you drift off having positive thoughts rather than negative one.  Of course my clients will also go to sleep listening to a hypnotherapy CD which also helps them to relax deeply and helps them to get a better nights sleep, which is key to our well-being.
For some clients this is enough to help them start on their road to happiness, but for others its not.  Unfortunately we also have a negative brain and this part of our brain doesn't like change and it will give you every excuse under the sun not to make changes, even small ones.  For some clients this part of their brain can even cause excruciating pain in order to stop you doing things and changing things. The way forward is to stop that negative thinking as soon as it starts by telling yourself "I'm not having those thoughts today, I'm going to think about ....." and immediately start thinking about something much more positive, a holiday or a place real or imagined that makes you feel calm, relaxed and safe.  It takes practice, but it does work.
Like everything in life, you have to work at being happy, but the more your practice, the easier it becomes, until its just the norm.

The Power of Positivity

We hear all the time about how positivity is the key to happiness and in lots of ways it is.  However, for someone who is suffering from anxiety and depression, it's the most difficult thing in the world.  I always tell my clients to start this process as they are getting ready for bed, by thinking of 3 things that have been good about the day.  It's the smallest things that can make all the difference, but by starting like this, you will begin to notice more and more good things until you're not thinking about the negatives.  It will also help you to be in a much more positive frame of mind as you drift off to sleep and this, in turn, will help you to get a better nights sleep.